


Somebody's Watching

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: Starting Over [33]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Drama, F/M, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-16
Updated: 2012-12-16
Packaged: 2017-11-21 07:30:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“OK, I won't ask anymore questions.  I want to know but I don’t really and I won't ask anymore.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somebody's Watching

**Author's Note:**

> MILD SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 8X11, PERENNIALS.

Beth looked down at the phone buzzing on her desk and saw his name. She stood up and walked to the door of her office.

“Chris, I have to take this; I’ll be right back.”

“OK.” Her assistant nodded, going back to his work.”

“Hi.” She said as she stood out in the hallway.

“Hi.”

“Are you alright?”

“I just um…I needed to call you.”

“Aaron, what is it? Don’t tell me it’s nothing because its something and you're worrying me.”

“I'm sorry sweetheart, I'm sorry. I don’t want to scare you.”

“What's wrong?” Beth asked. “You can tell me anything; you know that.”

Beth leaned against the wall, feeling the coolness through her cotton dress shirt. Her heart was beating fast and she’d begun to sweat. This was bad news but it wasn’t typical bad news. Aaron wasn’t crying, not that she’d ever seen or heard him do that. 

But she knew him well enough to know that he would if something had happened to a family member or someone on his team. So this was something else entirely and Beth didn’t know what. He sounded serious, in full Hotch mode. What was she supposed to make of that?

“Some things are going on and I can't talk too much about it because it’s an active case but I need you to do something for me.”

“What do you need?”

“I need you to be vigilant.” Hotch replied. “I need you to always be aware of your surroundings. If you think something is off, someone is watching you, or little things have changed around you…say something. 

“I need you to change up your routines, Beth. Don’t always take the same routes to work or shop in the same stores. If you need to be out late it would be better not to be alone. I don’t want to scare you into staying in the apartment behind the curtains; I just want you to be safe.”

“What's going on?” she asked.

“I can't talk too much about it I'm sorry. I'm just um…” he sighed. “I'm worried about you and I hate that I can't be there and I have to protect you.”

“I'm alright. Should I be scared?”

“No,” Hotch answered quickly. “No, dammit…”

“Aaron…”

“I don’t want you to be afraid. I'm so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? We live in a dangerous world and I'm always vigilant. If something seems off I’ll definitely tell you. But you don’t have to be sorry because I know why you're doing this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I'm just going to say it OK.”

“You know that you can say whatever you want to me. We can talk to each other.”

“You never want what happened three years ago to ever happen again to someone you love. Your job is dangerous and sometimes the people outside of it can get sucked in. Its not going to scare me away but if you tell me I need to be careful then I'm going to be careful.”

“But you're alone there and here I am giving you the creeps. This job; I'm supposed to be able to have something away from this job.”

“Are you sure you can't tell me anything about the case?” Beth asked.

She wanted to know what she was looking for. All kinds of strange and unique faces made up New York City; that was one of the awesome things about it. To know that anyone of the 12 million could be watching her right now made her blood run cold. She lived alone and it was a very scary thought. 

She wanted to at least try to know what it was when she spotted it. The idea of becoming paranoid about every sound and every person she came across didn’t appeal to Beth. Still, she had no intention of blaming Aaron. She loved him and this case obviously got to his very core. She needed to make sure he was alright as well.

“All I can say is it’s an unknown subject and he’s copycatting cases the BAU has solved. I wish I could tell you more but I can't. I shouldn’t have said that much.”

“You think he's stalking your team.” she said.

“It’s a real possibility.” It was more than that but Hotch wasn’t going to say.

“And he could be stalking the team’s loved ones as well.”

“Beth…”

“OK, I won't ask anymore questions. I want to know but I don’t really and I won't ask anymore.”

“I love you. I just want you to be safe.”

“I know.” She nodded.

“Are you at home?”

“I'm at work, should be leaving here in about a half hour.”

“Don’t take the train.” 

“I'm driving actually. I've joined this car share program so I drive in two or three days a week.”

“You're working late.” He said.

“Sometimes I do. I guess I don’t have to ask if you're still at Quantico.”

“No comment.”

“Yeah.” she laughed a bit. “I thought so. I miss you, and I love you.”

“Do you think you might be able to come home this weekend?” Hotch asked.

He just wanted her close. He wanted Beth safe and knew she would be that way if she was with him. All three of them could be together and Hotch wouldn’t have to lie in bed at night knowing she was 230 miles away and having no idea if a monster was watching her. This was never supposed to happen again. How could this be happening again? Would he make it through something like this with his sanity intact?

“There's a 4:45 train on Friday afternoons. It would be a late dinner but at least we could have it together.”

“I’ll just have a snack to tide me over.”

“So I’ll see you then.” Beth said.

“But we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Yes. We can talk some more tonight if you want to.”

“I do.”

“Well let me finish up here, get home, get a shower, and I’ll call you.” 

“Will you text me when you get in?” Hotch asked.

“Yes. And I'm sorry too Aaron. I'm sorry that this probably feels like the worse déjà vu imaginable. You don’t deserve to have to go through something like this again.”

“We’re going to get through it.”

“I know we will. I have to go; I’ll text when I get home.”

“Be safe. I love you.”

“I love you too, Aaron. Bye.”

Beth hung up the phone. She sighed and slipped it into her pocket. This was the part that made it so hard. Tonight she went home to her apartment and her dog. Aaron went home to his son and an empty bed. 

They would both probably be up late, thinking of each other and worrying. She wished they were together tonight. Beth wished this job opportunity of a lifetime was in Washington, DC. She loved the job but missed her life. She missed her friends, her neighborhood; she missed Aaron and Jack. 

And now with this unknown subject running around being alone in a new city didn’t hold the same allure. It was something to fear instead of something to experience. There was still work to be done tonight. Beth wanted to get home at a decent hour and she was already slipping past that time. So she pushed everything else to the back of her mind, went back into her office, and back to paperwork.

In his Quantico office, Hotch knew it was time to go home. There was still one thing left to do before that. He wasn’t going to look at anymore case files or think too much about the new psycho who was in their midst. If he kept doing that his head would surely explode. 

Instead he opened his gmail account and just started typing. He wrote out the entire email before he addressed it to missnewengland@gmail.com. After hitting send, Hotch shut his computer down and gathered up what he needed to go home. He typed out a quick text as he walked to the elevator.

‘ _Check your email when you get a chance. It says what I couldn’t. I love you, I miss you, and I can't wait to be together this weekend_.’ –Aaron

***


End file.
